1962 Mexican Grand Prix

Race summary

Pole-sitter Clark suffered a flat battery, so his Lotus 25-Climax got a replacement, but still failed to start; mechanics gave it a push start to get the engine going. However, due to a lack of communication between the starting officials, the start flag was waved while marshals were still on the track. For John Surtees, the delay caused a cylinder to burn out and his race was over before it even started. The race stewards decided the push start had been illegal (despite it being done by race officials) and black-flagged Clark's car (leaking oil in addition, so unlikely to survive full distance in any case) on lap 10.

Clark took over the second works Lotus of Lotus team-mate, Trevor Taylor, during a pit stop, dropping him to third, behind Jack Brabham's Brabham and Bruce McLaren in the Cooper. The Scot put in a superb drive to claw back the 57 second deficit on the leaders, passing both with over one third of the race distance still remaining. McLaren's engine blew after half-distance, and as the Brabham was also having trouble, Clark completed the remainder of the race with very little opposition, scoring an easy win. This would prove to be the final time that a Grand Prix victory would be shared by two drivers.

Also notable was the participation of German driver Wolfgang Seidel, who competed despite having had his FIA licence suspended over two months previously. The Porsche works team did not attend, Porsche having withdrawn from motor sport at the end of the 1962 World Championship season.

Despite the starting confusion, the race earned the Mexican Grand Prix full World Championship status from 1963, which it would retain until 1970.

Results

• Moisés Solana withdrew from the event during practice, complaining that his car was too slow. His fastest recorded time was faster than those of Seidel, Connell, Rader, Chamberlain and Hansgen.

References

• Note that the track length and race distance seem to be incorrectly quoted, while times/speed imply correct numbers (5.000 km/300.000 km) which agree with MotorSport source.

| Previous_year's_race = None | Next_year's_race = 1963 Mexican Grand Prix

References

1. Kettlewell, Mike. "Grand Prix Racing South of the Border", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. ''World of Automobiles'' (London: Orbis, 1974) Volume 12, p.1331.
2. Kettlewell, p.1331.
3. Kettlewell, p.1331.
4. Kettlewell, p.1331.
5. Kettlewell, p.1331.
6. (24 October 2018). "Mexico's Home Race Heroes". F1 Destinations.